Monday, August 21 – To protect the rights of workers, Justice in Aging teamed up last week with leading civil rights law firms, The Impact Fund, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) and Cohen Milstein, to file an amicus brief on behalf of more than thirty civil rights organizations from across the country in a trio of cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The cases address the question of whether employment agreements that prevent workers from taking “concerted” action to challenge workplace violations conflict with protections in federal labor law. Such agreements undermine the fight for civil rights.Read More

Decision in Alexander v. Price Means Medicare Patients Could Gain Right to Appeal Placement on “Observation Status” and Avoid Large Medical Bills

August 1, 2017 – Eighty-four-year-old Nancy Niemi of North Carolina was hospitalized for 39 days earlier this year after her doctor sent her to the emergency room. It took weeks to stabilize her blood pressure and she experienced serious complications. But unbelievably, Ms. Niemi was categorized as an outpatient on “observation status” for her entire hospitalization, and she therefore lacked the three-day inpatient stay Medicare requires for coverage of her subsequent, very expensive care at a nursing home. Ms. Niemi’s son tried to help her challenge her lengthy placement on observation status, but Medicare does not allow beneficiaries to appeal this issue. She still owes thousands of dollars to the nursing facility. However, due to the federal court decision issued July 31, 2017, she is now a member of a nationwide class of hospital patients who may gain the right to appeal their placement on observation status.Read More

Below is a statement by Executive Director Kevin Prindiville of Justice in Aging

Today, the Senate took a reckless and irresponsible step towards gutting healthcare for older adults and others, and removing critical consumer protections that save lives. With Vice President Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate voted to begin a curtailed 20-hour debate on several bills that would drastically change our health care system, stripping coverage from millions of Americans and cutting over $750 billion from Medicaid. Any bill that emerges from such a chaotic process would have devastating effects on older Americans and their families.Read More

Washington, DC—(July 19, 2017) 85-year-old Ortencia boils soup bones with vegetables she gets from the food bank to stretch her weekly food allotment and stay healthy. 61-year old Carey endures numerous aches and pains to carry groceries home from the bus, the cheapest form of transportation. Both struggle to survive on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a need-based program administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that provides a very basic income to older adults and people with disabilities. Major provisions of the program haven’t been updated since it was created in 1972, and as the program fails to keep up with the cost of living, the 8.3 million people who rely on it to pay rent, buy food, and meet other basic needs keep falling further below the poverty line.

Representative Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the SSI Restoration Act of 2017 in Congress today, with the support of 36 representatives and more than 80 organizations. The SSI Restoration Act puts forth solutions intended to help people like Ortencia and Carey make ends meet. The act increases the amount of money individuals can receive to supplement their income from both employment and non-employment sources; it increases the amount of assets individuals and couples can save for emergencies to a limit that’s more in line with today’s dollars; it repeals a provision that discourages people from seeking help from family; and removes the marriage penalty, among other adjustments.Read More

Below is a statement by Executive Director Kevin Prindiville on the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017 (ORRA)

Today the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed what we already knew: repealing the Affordable Care Act and delaying replacement will wreak havoc on our health care system. According to the CBO’s report, the Senate’s latest bill would strip coverage from 32 million Americans and cause health insurance premiums to nearly double in the next decade.Read More

Senate leadership has announced that they will no longer move forward with the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) of 2017. Instead, they seek to proceed to a vote to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, and delay replacement to a later date.

While we are relieved that the BCRA, and its unprecedented cuts to Medicaid, is off the table, repealing the ACA remains a terrible idea that would harm older adults—especially in the absence of a meaningful replacement bill.

July 6, 2017 – The State of California has failed to implement a federal law that requires Medi-Cal to implement eligibility rules intended to prevent one spouse from going broke while paying for at-home care for a spouse with a disability, according to a class action lawsuit filed today, Kelley v. Kent (LA. Super. Ct.).

When one spouse has chronic conditions requiring home-based care, the other spouse must balance the cost of that care against the couple’s basic needs. The federal law allows a person to get needed home-based services in certain instances in which a couple has income or resources higher than the typical maximum limit to qualify for Medicaid. Though the federal rule has been in effect for three and a half years, California has failed to implement it, forcing many families to teeter on the brink of financial ruin in an effort to care for their loved ones at home. The case was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court today by Bet Tzedek, Justice in Aging, Disability Rights California, and Western Center on Law and Poverty with pro-bono partner McDermott Will & Emery.

Below is a statement from Justice in Aging Executive Director, Kevin Prindiville

“This new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report shows that by 2026, 23 million Americans who previously had coverage will be uninsured. A disproportionately large number of the newly uninsured will be people between 50 and 64, whose premiums will skyrocket. For example, a single 64-year old with an income of $26,500 would have to pay a staggering $13,600 a year in premiums, more than half of what he has available to live on. That, compared to $1,700 a year under the Affordable Care Act, is an increase of more than 800%. Additionally, in states that waive consumer protections, older adults and others will see out-of-pockets costs rise sharply as plans provide skimpy coverage and can impose annual and lifetime limits.”

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the opportunity to live with dignity, regardless of financial circumstances—free from the worry, harm, and injustice caused by lack of health care, food, or a safe place to sleep. By using the power of law to strengthen the social safety net, and remove the barriers low-income seniors face in trying to access the services they need, we work to ensure the future we all envision for our loved ones and ourselves.